Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will move on to the AHB sector. I am Vice Chair of the Oireachtas housing committee and we have a line of accountability over what is happening in that area. We are just completing a round of delivery of Housing for All with AHBs and the local authorities and it has been very interesting to see how different local authorities and AHBs have been availing of the new tools that are available for public housing on public land and on private land. This sort of bounces between both the AHB sector and the Housing Agency. How comprehensively are they watching the gearing and the borrowing requirements for AHBs? The AHBs are raising a red flag and saying that some of the requirements around CALF and other funding streams require them to take on borrowing and they are somewhat reluctant to do that. They would prefer more a cash-based or grant-based scheme, so this is about the overall regulation of the financial arrangements and the financial governance but also about delivery.

Second, is there an audit or something taking place in the AHB sector to say how many AHBs are availing of all the tools? It is very clear that the new affordable purchase scheme and the affordable rental scheme are things the AHB sector has not really bitten on yet. Some of the local authorities have a long way to go as well. However, those tools are available, they have been legislated for and the funding is there. If AHBs are to be valuable, they must first of all be able to borrow. That is what we want them to do. That is the whole reason to have them; otherwise, we would be doing it ourselves. The second reason would be that they avail of the tools the State provides. Is that being monitored between the Department and the regulator?